When I first heard about the films being made, I remembered the time between the Ring story ending and the book finishing and new the film-maker would have a headache. I imagined, and in fact had resigned myself to, the following sequence of events:
Gollum slips, Ring is destroyed, Mount Doom pops, shots of all character reactions, slow-mo Eagles, Frodo unconsious. Cut to: Frodo, big white bed, Gandalf asking if he's happy to go back home, Frodo explaining tiredly that there is no home for him now, Grey Havens.
The fact that PJ fit so much more in is, as has been said above, remarkable if not even a little foolhardy for a professional film-maker. The Scoruing couldn't work in a film context, especially not with all the extra gubbins between Ring and Havens scenes. However, the financial success of the films means he'll never really be tarred by the myriad critics.
One of the problems with the concluding 20 minutes as they stand is the crowning of the King. It's slow, tacky (he sings!) and tritely cumbersome. A private scene where Aragorn appears in full state to the recovering hobbits and pays them a brief homage would have been, for me, far more powerful.
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